Car Payment Calculator
See where every dollar goes, from sticker price through tax, fees and trade-in to the payment
Trade-in Enter what the dealer allows you and what you still owe the lender. Leave both at zero if you are not trading anything in.
Sales tax & dealer fees Five states charge no vehicle sales tax at all. Eight more charge it on the full price even when you trade a car in.
What rate should you expect?
Average APR by credit band, from the Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market report for the second quarter of 2026. Start from the band you fall into, then replace it with the rate you are actually quoted.
| Credit band | Score | New | Used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superprime | 781 and up | 4.41% | 6.29% |
| Prime | 661 to 780 | 6.15% | 8.81% |
| Near prime | 601 to 660 | 9.71% | 13.93% |
| Subprime | 501 to 600 | 13.52% | 19.10% |
| Deep subprime | 300 to 500 | 16.11% | 21.62% |
| All borrowers | Market average | 6.35% | 11.19% |
Read 23 September 2026. The average amount financed behind these rates was $43,610 new and $27,852 used, over terms of 69.5 and 67.9 months.
Fill it in in this order
Each field changes the one below it, so working top down saves you re-entering numbers.
- 1Enter the price you actually agreed, before tax and fees. If all you have is an out-the-door quote, set the tax rate and the fees to zero instead.
- 2Add the down payment, the APR you were quoted and the term the lender offered.
- 3Put the trade-in allowance and your exact payoff figure in separately. The gap between the two is the number that matters.
- 4Set your local sales tax rate and say whether your state lets the trade-in reduce the taxable amount.
- 5Add title, registration and the dealer doc fee, then choose whether you finance them or pay them at signing.
- 6Read the bars. The interest bar is the one that grows when you stretch the term.
The car deal behind the payment
Trade-in equity, the sales tax credit, dealer fees, negative equity and why a long term leaves you underwater.
A monthly car payment is the easy part. What decides it is everything that happens between the price on the windscreen and the number the finance office finally lends you: the trade-in allowance, the payoff still sitting on your old loan, the sales tax your state charges and the fees the dealer adds at the end. This car payment calculator takes all of them and shows the answer as a set of proportional bars, so you can see how much of the money is buying a car and how much is buying time.
The price is never the amount you finance
Four numbers set the payment: the amount financed, the APR, the number of months and nothing else. The amount financed is the figure that moves the most, because it is built from six separate lines. Start with the agreed price, add the sales tax, add the title, registration and dealer fees, then subtract the down payment and the equity in your trade-in. If the tax and fees are financed rather than paid at signing, they join the principal and start earning interest on day one. The arithmetic that turns that principal into a payment is the same for any instalment loan, and the month by month schedule lives on the loan calculator.
Your trade-in is doing two separate jobs
Most people treat the trade-in as one subtraction. It is two. The first job is obvious: the allowance comes off what you need to borrow. The second job is the one that quietly saves real money, because in most states the trade-in allowance is deducted before sales tax is worked out. Buy a car for 45,000 dollars and trade one in at 25,000, and a 7 percent state taxes the 20,000 dollar difference. That is 1,400 dollars of tax instead of 3,150, a saving of 1,750 dollars for doing nothing but trading at the same dealership that is selling you the car.
Eight jurisdictions do not work that way and tax the full purchase price regardless: California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Montana and Virginia. Five states charge no vehicle sales tax at all, namely Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. If you live in one of the eight, selling the old car privately for more than the dealer offers is worth more than it looks, because you are no longer giving up a tax credit to do it.
Negative equity, the loan that follows you home
The trade-in allowance and the payoff on your old loan are different numbers, which is why the calculator asks for them separately. Subtract the payoff from the allowance and you get your equity. When that comes out negative you are upside down, and the shortfall does not disappear. The dealer settles your old lender and adds the gap to the new contract, so you finance it at the new APR, over the new term, on a car you no longer own.
This is not a rare case. Edmunds put 28.1 percent of new vehicle trade-ins underwater in the third quarter of 2025, with an average shortfall of 6,905 dollars. Almost a quarter of those buyers owed more than 10,000 dollars and 8.3 percent owed more than 15,000. Buyers who rolled the gap forward paid 907 dollars a month against an industry average of 767, and financed 11,164 dollars more than the typical new car buyer. Put your own payoff into the calculator and the purple bar shows exactly what that costs you.
Sales tax and the fees nobody quotes you
Sales tax is charged where you register the vehicle, not where the dealership stands, and the rate is a state rate plus whatever your county or city adds on top. Title and registration are government charges and are what they are. The dealer documentation fee is different. It covers the paperwork, it ranges from about 50 dollars to over 1,000 depending on where you buy, and seventeen states cap it by statute. New York caps it at 75 dollars and California at 85, while Florida dealers average around 950. In many states that fee is itself taxable, which is why the calculator has a switch for it.
Depreciation is why a long term leaves you underwater
Being upside down is not bad luck, it is two curves crossing. A car loses value fastest in its early years, and an iSeeCars study published in March 2026 put average five year depreciation at 41.8 percent across the market, with the worst models shedding 63.1 percent and the best only 9.6. A loan balance, meanwhile, falls slowly at first because the early payments are mostly interest. Stretch the term to lower the payment and you flatten the balance curve while the value curve keeps dropping, so the gap between them widens and stays open for longer.
Choosing a term with your eyes open
Lenders offer anything from 24 to 84 months and a few go to 96. Borrow 40,000 dollars at 6.5 percent and the trade is stark: 783 dollars a month and 6,959 in interest over 60 months, 672 and 8,413 over 72, or 594 and 9,894 over 84. Two extra years shave 189 dollars off the payment and add 2,935 dollars to the cost. The average new car loan now runs 69.5 months and the average used car loan 67.9, so the long term is normal rather than exotic, which is exactly why the interest bar is worth watching.
What rate to expect, and what you can afford
Rates follow credit tiers more than anything else. In the second quarter of 2026 the market average was 6.35 percent on a new car and 11.19 percent on a used one, but superprime borrowers averaged 4.41 percent new while deep subprime averaged 16.11. On the used side the spread runs from 6.29 percent to 21.62. Two rules of thumb keep the result honest once you have a payment. Chase frames the 20/4/10 rule as 20 percent down, four years at most, and total transport costs including insurance, fuel and maintenance held under 10 percent of gross monthly income. Navy Federal is looser and suggests the payment alone should sit near 10 to 15 percent of take home pay. If your bars look fine but neither rule does, the problem is the price rather than the loan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states tax the full price even when I trade a car in?
Eight jurisdictions give no sales tax reduction for a trade-in and charge the tax on the whole purchase price: California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Montana and Virginia. Everywhere else, the dealer's trade-in allowance comes off the price before the tax is worked out. On a 45,000 dollar car with a 25,000 dollar trade-in and a 7 percent rate, that is the difference between paying 1,400 dollars of tax and paying 3,150. Set the trade-in credit switch to No if you buy in one of the eight, and the calculator will tax the full price. Five states charge no vehicle sales tax at all: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.
What happens to the money I still owe on my trade-in?
The dealer pays your old lender the full payoff figure and then settles up with you. If the allowance is larger than the payoff, the difference is equity and it works like extra cash down. If the payoff is larger, the shortfall is added to your new contract. That is why the calculator asks for the allowance and the payoff as two separate fields rather than one net number: the allowance is what reduces your sales tax, while the gap between the two is what changes the amount financed. Ask your lender for a ten day payoff quote rather than reading the balance off an app, because interest accrues between statements.
How do I know if I am upside down on a car loan, and what does it cost?
Subtract what the car is worth from what you still owe. A 15,000 dollar balance on a car valued at 12,000 is 3,000 dollars of negative equity. Rolling that into a new loan means borrowing it again at the new rate for the new term, so you pay interest on a vehicle you have already handed back. Edmunds found buyers who did this in the third quarter of 2025 paid 907 dollars a month against a 767 dollar industry average, and financed 11,164 dollars more than the typical new car buyer. Enter your payoff in the calculator and the shortfall appears as its own bar in the total.
Is it cheaper to pay the tax and fees at signing than to finance them?
Yes, if you have the cash. Tax and fees are a fixed amount either way, but financing them turns them into principal that earns interest for the whole term. On a 35,000 dollar car with 5,000 down, 6 percent sales tax and 800 dollars of fees at 6.35 percent over 60 months, rolling the 2,900 dollars in raises the payment from about 585 dollars to about 641 and adds roughly 492 dollars of interest. Switching the calculator to pay them at signing shows the trade in both directions: a lower payment and a larger cheque on the day.
What is a dealer documentation fee, and can I negotiate it?
The doc fee is what the dealership charges for preparing the paperwork, and unlike title and registration it is not a government charge. It ranges from around 50 dollars to over 1,000 depending on where you buy. Seventeen states cap it: New York at 75 dollars, California at 85, Oregon at 115, Texas and Washington at 150, Michigan at 210 and Pennsylvania at 374, among others. In uncapped states it is much larger, with Florida dealers averaging close to 950 dollars. Where the fee is capped it is rarely negotiable because every dealer charges the maximum, so push on the vehicle price instead. In many states the fee is also taxable, which the calculator lets you switch on.
Why does the calculator want the price before tax rather than the out-the-door price?
Because the tax and the fees behave differently from the price. The trade-in allowance reduces the taxable amount in most states, fees may or may not be taxed, and you can choose whether to finance either of them or pay them on the day. An out-the-door figure has all of that already baked in and cannot be taken apart again, so the bars would collapse into one. If a quote is the only number you have, enter it as the price and set the tax rate and the fees to zero. You will get the right payment, you just will not see the split.
How much extra does an 84 month car loan cost compared with 60 months?
On a 40,000 dollar loan at 6.5 percent, 60 months costs 783 dollars a month and 6,959 dollars in interest, while 84 months costs 594 a month and 9,894 in interest. The payment drops by 189 dollars and the total rises by 2,935. The bigger risk is not the interest, it is the timing: a balance that falls that slowly stays above the vehicle's value for years, so you are exposed if the car is written off or you need to sell. The average new car loan is already 69.5 months, so a long term is normal, but it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
How fast does a new car lose value compared with the loan balance?
Faster than the balance falls, which is the whole problem. An iSeeCars study published in March 2026 put average five year depreciation at 41.8 percent, with the worst performers losing 63.1 percent and the best holding on to all but 9.6. A loan balance moves the other way round: early payments are mostly interest, so the principal barely shifts in the first year. A large down payment and a shorter term pull the two curves together, which is what the 20 percent down and four year parts of the 20/4/10 rule are really for.
How much of my income should a car payment take?
There are two common yardsticks. Chase's 20/4/10 rule says all of your transport costs together, meaning the payment plus insurance, fuel and maintenance, should stay under 10 percent of your gross monthly income, alongside 20 percent down and a term of four years or less. Navy Federal takes the looser view that the payment on its own should sit near 10 to 15 percent of your take home pay. For scale, the average new car payment in the second quarter of 2026 was 765 dollars and the average used car payment 542. If the payment the calculator returns fails both tests, the answer is a cheaper car rather than a longer loan.